Rashmi's Space

It was a bright, sunny afternoon. I was at work in the study and my little one was tinkering with my phone. Suddenly, he asked, “Who is Deepali Kamath?” And I was like, “she’s my friend, why?” To which he countered with another question, “isn’t she on Facebook?” And I was like, “What? Why are you looking at my Facebook? And why are you looking for Deepali Kamath specifically?” Now, my little one and I are, on most days, more friends than mom and son. So yes, he does have access to my phone and he does have permission to ask me any questions – and I mean any random questions! But here I was a bit intrigued by all this curiosity regarding a specific friend of mine, especially, considering I had just spoken to her yesterday; within the little one’s earshot, I might add.  So, “what’s with this sudden curiosity about Deepali?” I asked him.   "Nothing," he shrugged. "It’s just that, I find her name in your contacts list but not in Facebook; and I know you are...

Baffled by the title? Let me explain. I was recently watching the 1980’s classic Bollywood movie  Khoobsurat  and there was this scene where the female protagonist breaks into an impromptu song and urges us to think  what if?  – What if birds swam in the ocean and the fish flew; what if coffee was available every time we opened a tap and candy and toffees grew on trees; what if the Sun was blue and the Moon was red; what if we slept on a table and ate on a bed…what if, what if, what if…. And that got me thinking! (Now you see the problem with having a vivid imagination?) Well, it got me thinking,  what if things weren’t the way they always are in the real world? But, I wasn’t indulging in as ingenuous thoughts of the lyricist as mentioned in the song ( watch here ); but something else entirely – You see, I had just read the morning papers and checked my FB feed; and was raring to have a go at the things that were really annoying; b...

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) , one of the most iconic movies of Bollywood completes a whopping 1000 weeks at the box office today! Kudos to the team that made this amazingly simple and sweet movie that taught us so much at so many different levels, not to mention the fond memories and the cult dialogues it gave us! In his congratulatory tweet, Shekhar Kapur said "Congratulations 2 Adi Chopra n whole team. Film defined a generation. Wish they still made films like this. From the heart. "  I agree with him a hundred percent.  DDLJ  was a heartfelt movie - made from the heart and meant to touch hearts. I also agree with him that the film defined an entire generation. A generation that is so different from the present one that sleeps and awakes to the pings of notifications on their smart phone. 

Each of us is a product of our upbringing and circumstances. Invariably, therefore, we all have our set of likes, opinions and preferences. Some of these have been passed on to us through the elder generation while others are a product of our thoughts and perceptions. It is this mixed baggage that we carry as a person that stays with us when we become parents. This baggage, however, has serious potential to influence our children in a big way.   I recently read an article that says "do not pass on your hatred to your children." It details how parents invariably tend to instill in their children, the dislike they have towards certain things or people. The author's point being - "Just because you don't like something, do not make your children dislike it or just never expose them to it at all!"